The weekend winners produced mixed results and it just goes to show how fragile these thoroughbreds are and how they need to be cherished.
Both Mastery and Tapwrit cashed in on 50 points toward qualifying for Kentucky Derby but Mastery will not be moving forward. The weekend winners of the San Felipe at Santa Anita and the Tampa Bay Derby have extremely different futures ahead of them.
Amazingly, the Kentucky Derby is just 7 weeks away and the San Felipe winner Mastery looked like the real deal but it was a bitter sweet win. The Tampa Bay Derby hero Tapwrit took advantage of what was in front of him and he reeled his rivals in.
Mastery proved one again he can take the heat of speed duel in the kitchen and live to tell about it. The Bob Baffert trainee was one of the weekend winners because basically he refused to be headed. He was facing a legitimate speed horse in Iliad and he just was not going to be denied. Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith went to the front immediately
Mastery hit the front soon after the start setting fractions of :23.50, :46.79, and 1:10.48 through six furlongs. Briefly, Iliad loomed as a challenger, but Mastery effortlessly pulled away in the stretch as one of the most impressive weekend winners in recent years. His margin over Iliad was two lengths with a furlong to run, and he extended it with each stride to the wire to finish off the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.28
Mastery received the fastest Beyer Speed Figure earned this year by any 3-year-old, which makes his injury all the more hurtful when put into perspective. His figure was 105.
The bad news for this impressive one of the weekend winners is that Mastery was pulled up by his Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith after the wire.
When the smoke cleared, Mastery had sustained a condylar fracture in his left front leg and will undergo surgery.
As for the rest, Iliad he ran well and he brings blazing speed to the party. Gormley held together to get third in the San Felipe.
Tapwrit, in his own right, held his own as one of the solid weekend winners at Tampa Bay under jockey Jose Ortiz. Despite traffic problems Tapwrit drew clear by 4 1/2 lengths over pacesetter State of Honor and he won in stakes record-time. State of Honor was dealing with Sonic Mule up front through fractions of :23.42 and :46.65. When push came to shove, Tapwrit flew by State of Honor with casual ease and had no challengers to threaten him.
Tapwrit’s trainer Todd Pletcher had some anxious moments, Pletcher: “He won pretty convincingly, and we’re very pleased. He had kind of a rough trip around the first turn and got shuffled around a little, but he handled it professionally and steadied himself and got in good stride up the backstretch. After he made the lead, Jose kept him occupied down the lane because he has a tendency to idle when he gets ahead. This was everything we could have hoped for.”
Tapwrit punched his ticket to the Kentucky Derby and now is second in Kentucky Derby points with 54. Gunnevera has 10 more, J Boys Echo and Girvin have 53 and 50 points respectively.
The Kentucky Derby point standings from five through twelve include Practical Joke, Classic Empire, El Areeb, Gormley, Untrapped, State of Honor, McCraken and San Felipe second Iliad.
Of course, this is devastating news but what happened to Mastery is just part of the game. What you have on a daily basis at every track in the country is thoroughbreds going upwards of 40 miles per hour on legs that would make a super model envy.
Some will say that this is cruelty to animals but it’s just like any other sport. Kevin Durant was just going about his business when his teammate Zaza Pachulia rolled into him and sidelined the NBA superstar. Baseball players get hurt in freak accidents every single year and sure, the NFL is brutal, but that is part of the allure. Players can be at the top of their games mentally and physically and things just happen.
Weekend Winners Produce Mixed Emotions
